


Love/Guilt

by jujubiest



Category: Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated (TV 2010)
Genre: Angst, F/F, One Shot, Past Character Death, Post-Series, Spoilers, Velma can't stop thinkingi n circles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-23 23:17:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12518856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujubiest/pseuds/jujubiest
Summary: It's a terrible thing, to be seventeen and know someone you love would die for you.





	Love/Guilt

**Author's Note:**

> This idea grabbed me while I was washing dishes. I apologize in advance for the angst. MAJOR spoilers for the end of the series.

Sometimes Velma hears the wistfulness in Marcie’s voice on the phone and thinks “you deserve so much better than this.”

It’s a terrible thing, to be seventeen years old and know that someone you love would die for you. Not because they’ve said so in some fit of romantic zeal, or because you feel like they probably would…because they  _have,_ in another time, another world they don’t even remember.

It’s a terrible thing to think, every time you start feeling too young or too scared or just totally unprepared to be this serious, this committed for life…”you died for me, the least I could do is live with you.”

The horrible, cosmically bad joke of it all, of course, is that she  _does_ adore Marcie. She loves her from the crown of her messy head of hair to the toes of her scuffed red shoes.

It’s just that sometimes, she can’t stop her calculator brain from tallying up all the things Marcie did in that other life and highlighting all the ways that she, Velma, falls short. Those are the days she feels the most trapped, feels like she doesn’t really have a choice.

She  _has_  to love Marcie, because Marcie put her first, over and over, until it finally killed her. She has to love Marcie, because what kind of person would she be if she didn’t?

And she does, she reminds herself fiercely. She  _does._

But she can’t do it close up, face to face. Not in Crystal Cove, surrounded by brighter, happier versions of nearly everyone she’s ever known.

That’s another thing that stings, half pain, half simmering bone-deep rage: this isn’t even  _her_ Marcie, not really. This Marcie was never her rival in the science fair; they entered it together every year since seventh grade, as a team. This Marcie never gave up everything just to make sure Velma knew how much she cared. This Marcie never  _died_. She never had to, and of course Velma’s glad; she knows that’s how it should always have been.

But it wasn’t, and she can’t forget that, ever. It feels dishonest, as much a betrayal as wondering, in her heart of hearts, if what she feels is really love…or guilt.

(Sometimes Velma hears a voice in her head that sounds horribly like Ricky Owens–the real Ricky Owens–whispering that the two need not be mutually exclusive.)


End file.
